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^^ Much of that is related to modding, so it's not unusual for things to break. You're going off the reservation by modding. It's most likely true that Nvidia provides better support in those cases though. At least my impression is that Nvidia are better at third-party support than AMD. Many gamers just won't ever notice that.

One post refers to Dark Souls, which performs poorly because it's a shitty port. Not really AMDs fault.

^^ Much of that is related to modding, so it's not unusual for things to break. You're going off the reservation by modding.

haven't had any issues since selling the crappy HD5870 :)

EDIT: You guys seem to think there is a secret nvidia cabal that sends stealth agents who secretly materialise in front of modders' houses to make their mods work better with nvidia? No, nvidia just makes better drivers that don't break on anything without a "AMD Gaming Evolved!!!" logo on it.

EDIT: You guys seem to think there is a secret nvidia cabal that sends stealth agents who secretly materialise in front of modders' houses to make their mods work better with nvidia? No, nvidia just makes better drivers that don't break on anything without a "AMD Gaming Evolved!!!" logo on it.

Nah, just better support via things like CUDA. Nvidia's drivers do break sometimes, just like AMDs.

I'm trying to finish my new build and I have the biggest of confusions with the GPU. I want to know firsthand what or how has AMD improved all his linux and incompatibility problems over the last years, or at least a reason why I should get a HD7970 over a GTX680 that's not price or marginally better performance. How's everyday gaming? Does it have problems with every other game like before? Can you Linux normally on them? How's the compatibility with Hackingtosh or Virtual Machines?

I haven't used Linux as a graphical desktop in recent times, so I can't really reply to your question, but I'm doing it anyway because I got this odd feeling most replies were only concerned with the Windows drivers. At worst, what follows will be outdated.

Last time I checked, AMD's proprietary drivers were much worse than nVidia's, an easily foreseeable consequence of the massive disparity in resources AMD has devoted to development, they used to be a few guys struggling to cover a massive number of different families and cards (in fact they've stopped supporting anything older than the HD5000 family)

Specifically, AMD was slow to update their drivers whenever significant changes were introduced in the X server or the kernel, and then the choice is either giving up on the proprietary drivers until they catch up (OSS drivers are not even remotely comparable in terms of 3D performance), or stop/avoid the upgrade. Mind you, this was more of a problem with some distributions, where in place upgrading is available.

The nVidia driver is not perfect either but they've got A LOT of manpower and it shows. If you're planning to make extensive use of Linux on a daily basis, nVidia is the obvious choice as far as I'm concerned. If OTOH you're just Linux curious, use it in a VM and don't bother about drivers and stuff.

As for Hackintoshes, AFAIK OS X only supports cards that have been sold in actual machines. I wouldn't waste time with it unless you have some very specific interest - and if you're asking chances are you don't.

the latest versions of enb work well with ati cards because the developer started focusing on writing workarounds for ati's many bugs. I think this started happening this past year. So if you've only ever been using a PC with mods since 2012, good for you - ati was the right choice!

Here is the point: as an nvidia user, I don't need to worry about this crap. Sure, the n00bs are going to post about "nvidia problems" but in this entire dx10/dx11 generation (2006 - present), nvidia has been simply stellar for me and many others with a bit of technical know how.

I've been using a PC with mods for ages and it's not mods that are the issue at all, there's always going to be some bug that crops up no matter what the card it's just the way it is. Initially I wouldn't be surprised if the ENB series started out as better on Nvidia because before it was really popular that's all he really coded for. Is it any surprise that ATI cards weren't catered for? This thread is about the state of the cards today and as of this moment the green and red are fairly even, even enough that I could safely go from the 5970 to the 7970 with no fear, but I was just as close to getting a 680 because they are both great buys.

I'm not sure the thinly veiled suggestion that Nvidia cards are for people with technical know how is particularly necessary either.

And as many of us posted, most of this discussion has no relevance to the original question. (guilty party also). It was about Linux, not if AMD or Nvidia is better, or about some random graphics mods that the minority of people buying GPUs would use.

How's everyday gaming? Does it have problems with every other game like before? Can you Linux normally on them? How's the compatibility with Hackingtosh or Virtual Machines?

So a general gaming question, Linux, OS X and VM.

1) both are competitive. AMD latest drivers have see some good improvments. Never had a problem with their cards for general gaming.

2) Never really done much graphically in Linux but the general notion is Nvidia has better support.

I've been using a PC with mods for ages and it's not mods that are the issue at all, there's always going to be some bug that crops up no matter what the card it's just the way it is.

strange how it's mostly ati cards that have bugs though isn't it?

Originally Posted by Sketch

This thread is about the state of the cards today and as of this moment the green and red are fairly even,

don't know what that means exactly. Even where driver stability or support is concerned? Features? Specs? Attention to detail?
Hey if you're strapped for cash ati is great, otherwise we're talking about overall quality and reliability here.

Originally Posted by Sketch

I'm not sure the thinly veiled suggestion that Nvidia cards are for people with technical know how is particularly necessary either.

it shouldn't be, but when you post a google results page which is the equivalent of "mah nvidia no workz" ....

No it's not strange, ENB works fine with ATI (mostly) but it was developed using Nvidia, of course it's going to be more stable in the early days. But we're not discussing then either. I've seen no real suggestion that one type of card is suffering more in the mods department. If it was, I'd jump ship as I have no loyalty to either brand.

I must be a right idiot if I went to ATI because I'm strapped for cash, because the 680's are cheaper. That doesn't matter though really. Drivers for ATI have recently been great and there's been no major issues that divide the two companies, which is my point. They're both appealing at the moment.

As for the link, I was just pointing out that if you look you can find someone having a problem with any configuration regardless of which GPU manufacturer your with. Some of your results were from 2010 even, all my google search was, was a condensed version of what you did. I'm not trying to convince anyone Nvidia isn't good, they are. But AMD are good too, and all evidence points to them staying that way.

Sure, the n00bs are going to post about "nvidia problems" but in this entire dx10/dx11 generation (2006 - present), nvidia has been simply stellar for me and many others with a bit of technical know how.

Yes, it's been stellar for you and a lot of others. So has AMD/ATI. But there are also people for whom Nvidia (as well as AMD/ATI) has not been stellar. Nvidia's 196.75 driver ended up frying a number of graphics cards, for example.

I'm trying to finish my new build and I have the biggest of confusions with the GPU. I want to know firsthand what or how has AMD improved all his linux and incompatibility problems over the last years, or at least a reason why I should get a HD7970 over a GTX680 that's not price or marginally better performance. How's everyday gaming? Does it have problems with every other game like before? Can you Linux normally on them? How's the compatibility with Hackingtosh or Virtual Machines?

Well, Linus Torvalds has raged in public about Nvidia, and he has not yet raged about AMD, so I geuss you are good to go with an AMD!
Myself, I have used AMD cards for the longest of times and never had any issues with drivers. However, their driver support has improved ever since last year, as they are no longer going for the "Bi-monthly" release model, but now for the "Roadmap & when it's done" release model. Drivers should be less of a problem, if they ever were for you.

Originally Posted by mashakos

don't know what that means exactly. Even where driver stability or support is concerned? Features? Specs? Attention to detail?
Hey if you're strapped for cash ati is great, otherwise we're talking about overall quality and reliability here.

We are talking about the exact same thing here. Ati/AMD cards are really good quality, and so are their drivers, these days.

Last edited by Grizzly; 29-01-2013 at 02:47 PM.
Reason: Deleted incorrect data, see benchmarks below for a fair comparision between the cards on linux

Some tech website will show AMD and NVidia products paired for each price slot. Point is: whatever your budget is, you cannot go wrong with either of the two. AMD and NVidia make best graphics cards these days and Intel is sniffing them from behind.

OP; head on over to Phoronix and their forums. From what I can tell, AMD has really upped its linux game over the past few years and is now comparable (if not superior) to Nvidia on Linux. I also know that the 7950 and the 680 were comparable on Linux so can only assume that the 7870 is therefore better than the 680.